His wife Pat was informed of the news by police on Tuesday at 4.30pm.

Mr Coakley (61), a father of three, was on board the A330 Airbus Flight 447 which vanished en route from Rio to Paris on 1 June with 228 people on board, including five Britons.

His boarding card and laptop had already been found by accident investigators.

You can leave your own tribute to Arthur Coakley here. Follow the instructions to register as a user and then leave a comment at the bottom of the story

Mr Coakley's widow, Patricia, said she was thankful that his body had been found.

She also praised the work of local police officers who have being helping the family since the crash.

She told the Whitby Gazette: "Our police liaison officer, who has been a great help to us, came to the house to inform us that Art's body had been found.

"It has been very hard for the family and now at least now we know, his family, that he is coming home.

"We will have a grave to visit and say our goodbyes to him properly and not have to think about him alone, lost at sea."

The body is due to be repatriated and it is expected that it will be flown to Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Mrs Coakley added that no funeral arrangements were yet being made.

Earlier this week, Brazilian investigators called off the search for bodies from the crash, meaning some victims' remains may never be found.

French authorities were yesterday preparing to release the first official report into the crash.

But UK aviation experts fear the cause of the disaster may never be known.

Hope of finding the plane's black box flight recorders has almost gone and experts do not expect the report from France's air investigations and analysis office to shed much new light.

l Leave your own tribute to Mr Coakley at www.whitbygazette.co.uk